12 Chapter 4: Blacksmith (Six Years Old, Closer To Seven)
(First Person PoV)
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I wandered around the busy market, making stops at every shoe stores in hopes of finding a suitable foot wear. But unfortunately, every shoe stores I'd stop by weren't selling the ones I am looking for.
"Kid, just wha' are ya' even lookin' for?"
The shop owner of the shoe store I'm currently in, pozed a question.
"Huh?"
"I noticed that you've 'een goin' in and out from 'ery shoe stores. So tell me, wha' kind of shoe 'ur lookin' for?"
It took me a full minute to fully comprehend what the shop owner was saying before I answered. The shoe I'm looking for isn't much a secret, besides, maybe this guy might be able to help me.
"A shoe that covers your toes."
"Ahh, I see...."
My eyebrows furrowed, seems like I hit a jackpot...
"You know where they sell these things?"
"Yerp," he took a sip of his gourd, that I presumes to contain sake, "but, it'll cos' ya'."
... or maybe not.
A clipart of distain reached my face.
I sighed, reluctantly, "How much?"
"Doesn' cos' much'... about 5k Ryo's.."
Five fucking thousand Ryo's!
[Stop overreacting....]
I can feel your eyes rolling at me!
[Its not like he's asking for all of your money.]
Get out!
Oh right! Kekekekekekekeke. I reached for a pay check that Inoichi gave me.
[You're really shameless.]
Oh shut up! Brother gave it to me at my sixth birthday.
I asked the owner for a pen and wrote the given pay on the pay check.
"How can I know fer' sur' that this isn' a fake?" He has a doubtfull look on his face.
[Not that you can blame him, can you.]
"The employees will know about it."
He made a sound of satisfaction at the back of his throat.
"Jus' go straigh' and when ya' see the second dark alley way there's a man selling that kinda stuff."
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(First Person PoV Ending)
(Third Person PoV Inserting)
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"Thanks." Tobias' gratitude came off as insincere that the shoe owner didn't quite catch on.
He followed the shoe owner's directions and faced a dark oak door at the end of the alley way. He knocked, but a response didn't came. He knocked again, but not a single sound came out.
'Did that ugly-squid just scammed me?!' Was the thought that made Tobias ' anger erupted like a volcano. He knocked on the door again, and again, clearly direction his anger towards the poor innocent dark oak door.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" A voice shouted from the opposite side of the door said, irritatedly, twice.
The green-eyed boy's anger cooled off after hearing an old gruff voice.
The door swinger open, rather too hastily as a loud sharp of bang echoed throughout the alley way, but the civilians outside seemed to be ignorant of this concerning sound— perspective from a Shinobi.
"What?" A middle-age man pozed to him.
"I heard that you sell shoes."
"Huh?! I'm a blacksmith kid, not a shoe maker! Get outa' here!"
As the man was about to close the door, Tobias slightly winced as his foot made contact with the large bang from the door to prevent it from closing.
"Listen here old man, I just lost five thousand Ryo's in exchange for this information and I'm not just gonna stand by in front of you and do nothing!"
"Then go far that person!"
"Oh don't worry, I will," he solemnly promised to himself, "After I take a look at your weapons."
The man stared deeply at the eyes of the kid in front of him. He let go of the doorknob and said, "I'm Yoshindo Muramasa, come inside kid."
[I'm surpise he didn't told you to scram away... given by your age.]
'Oh please, Yoshindo clearly just have good eyes.'
[More like blind.]
Tobias sneered at the System.
"Somethings wrong?" Yoshindo questioned after seeing the sneer look on his face. 'I thought I was looking at a monster for a moment.' He thought clunching his heart.
Tobias cleared off the sneer on his face and shook his head, "Nope," he said popping the sound 'p'.
"Good, the weapons are there," Yoshindo pointed towards his left direction.
There were katana's displayed on a 5 teir sword holder on the wall, chokuto's were on a barrels. Kunai knives, shurikens, daggers were displayed on a shelf. Chains left on the floor, gloves with its claws sheathed sat on top of the table. Farming tools being categorized from each box.
'Is this really it?'
[It'd be wise for you to pay respect to some of these good weapons.]
'Why? How are any of this weapons different from the others?'
[You really don't have an eye for a weapon....]
'...'
[As your Virtual Assistant System, I've been given the ability to identify weapons from ordinary ones.]
'So what makes some of these weapons good?' Tobias questioned, emphasizing the word 'good'.
[Despite those weapons being created in a half-assed manner... hmm about sixty, no, seventy-five percent out of hundred ma—]
'Just get to the point.'
[... anyways, the weapons are two times better than an ordinary weapon that you would see from a Shinobi.]
'How so?' Tobias mentally asked, sincerely intrigued.
[While it was crafted with a basic steel, it has the exceptional capability to be used as a Shinobi's weapon, thanks to the blacksmiths craftsmanskill,]
Pang!
Pang!
Pang!
Pang!
A loud pang of sound entered through Tobias' ears. Away from him was the man hammering a flat hot steel.
'You said that some of these weapons here are great, right? Then what of those weapons?'
[?]
'The ones that aren't great. Is the man in front of me the one who made those great weapons?'
There was not a single message being sent to him by the System.
'Great,' sarcasm coated his thoughts, 'just when I need that System brat most it suddenly doesn't answer,'
Tobias' face srunched up in annoyance. He observed the blacksmith's work instead.
Yoshnido took a break, taking off his gloves and drank a cup of water.
Tobias' eyes suddenly widen, 'What the—,' the moment his eyes narrowed a message from the System appeared.
[I can only conclude that someone made great ones or Yoshnido did, but we wouldn't exactly be able to know with only little knowledge about this.]
'Yoshnido is not originally a blacksmith.'
[Hm?]
'His hands,' he said, 'Its weird."
[Those hands aren't the hands of a blacksmith.]
'????'
[The needle marks. On his hands. You see that?]
'Oh,' he then made his decision, 'Let's wait for a couple more time to buy a weapon.'
Tobias walk near a shelf, his head looking up and stared at the rectangular box.
"Yoshnido-san, what's inside that box?"
Tobias gathered Yoshnido's attention, the latter walk towards the former and chuckled.
"This is a foot wear that I made during my youth, I hoped for it to be a replacement for the sandals that we are currently using."
'This seems interesting,' a glint could be seen on Tobias' green eyes, "May I see it?"
"Sure?" Yoshnida grabbed the box and blew the dusk that covered the top away. Opening the lid of the box, he handed it over to Tobias and sat on a chair.
"It was a fail." He stated, "I didn't bother throwing it away as it seemed to be a waste of material."
Tobias looked at him with a doubtful look on his face.
"Why're you looking at me like that?"
"Are you serious,' when Yoshnida didn't say anything he continued, "This, this foot wear is what I've been looking for!" He exclaimed.
Inside the box was a shoe that Tobias have been looking for. To be precise, it was a combat boot.
"Yoshnida-san, how much are you selling this for?"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down," Yoshnida wore a confuse look, "I told you already! I stopped selling this kind of shoes after it didn't make a sell."
"Simple, just resell it again, to me!" Said Tobias, as if he had already solved the problem.
"Kid, I don't know what you're thinking, but this isn—"
"Please, Yoshnida-san, please," Tobias begged with a desperate look on his face.
[Wow, I think this will be the first time and last time I'll ever see you begging.]
'If this guy doesn't sell this to me! Meaning...'
'... No cover-toe type of shoes — No protection for the Unit and him — No protection — Will lose toes — No toes — There'll be no balance and support when you walk — Having a hard time walking — No Construction Workers — No one to build ondols for me — Meaning: There'll be no money!!'
[You're fucking shameless.]
Yoshnida finally gave in after seeing the desperate look on Tobias' face.
"Fine, fine, but don't blame me if it'll turn out to be failure."
"I won't!" 'Yes!'
"So how much is the pay?" Asked Tobias, already making the calculations in his head.
"10k."
"Deal." Said Tobias, reluctantly.
'Why the fuck did I just said that?.'
[What about your foot size?]
'Oh right!' "What about my foot size? Aren't you gonna take a measure of them?"
Yoshnida chuckled, "No need."
Tobias thought that it was weird that Yoshnida didn't need to take his foot size, but he only shrugged it off, 'Let's just trust what he said,'
"Also, I want thirty-two of that kind of shoes!"
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"Hello readers! Author-san here! For those of you that don't know, there has been an ongoing bet between my friends and I, and that bet was to recieve 25k readers and 25 collectors of this fic! And I'm proud to say that I've obtain 61 collectors! More than what was necessary!
And although the readers still hasn't hit 25k, I'm still very happy to recieve 12 k readers!
Thank you everyone for reading my fic!
Oh and also, big thanks for kosmas_kosmas and HDudidhdvdv123 for giving me power stones. And special thanks for Deep_bruise for giving me the advice of changing of what used to be a novel Naruto into a fiction Naruto!
Bye²!
